As valuable or sensitive networked resources are being made accessible over computer networks in ever greater frequency, there is an equally increasing need to selectively control networked access to these resources, including applications, data, and services. Access to less sensitive or valuable networked resources may be sufficiently controlled based on logon identities and passwords. However, other networked resources may require enhanced protection provided by more complex authentication methods and systems. For example, a user desiring access to a web-based resource may currently supply a specially issued web browser “cookie” in addition to a logon identity and password.
However, at the present time, there are no sophisticated end-to-end solutions that provide differentiated access to networked resources based on authentication input attributes such as the strength of the input, the type of the input, and the amount of trust placed in a user identity presented in the input. The type of the authentication input is the nature of the input (e.g., password, biometric data, identity certificate, etc). Further, in an example where the authentication input is a password, the strength may refer to character length of the password. Lastly, the amount of trust placed in a user identity presented in the authentication input may be related to the strictness of the administrative rules under which the authentication input is obtained.